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CELEBRITY SECTION COLUMN
CATEGORY
ISSUE ONE
THE LOW DOWN
ON BASEMENT RENOS
HITTING THE WALL
WITH LAURA STEIN
TRUE GRIT HOW BRYAN BAEUMLER BECAME A HOUSEHOLD NAME
PUT SOME “AHHHH” INTO YOUR HOME SPA
HOLIDAY GIFTS THEY’LL ACTUALLY USE
FAMILYFRIENDLY DÉCOR
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RENO
ROCK SOLID: INNOVATIVE STONE FINISHES BY LISA EVANS
Despite the constant flux of design trends, the beauty and uniqueness of natural stone have continued to make it a top design choice for kitchens and bathrooms. But innovative stone products are now allowing homeowners to use stone beyond floors and countertops. Michael Stachowiak, a stone mason from London, Ontario has been working with stone for over 25 years. His company, Eco Creations, helps homeowners incorporate some of the world’s most unique stones – travertine, marble, onyx and compressed slate - into their designs. Here, he provides his tips on incorporating innovative stone finishes into home décor. Designer stone panels come in five by eight foot slabs of travertine, marble and onyx and completely eliminate the need for grout. “Homeowners and new home builders’ biggest issue [with tiling] is grout. People don’t want to have to worry about grout discolouring or having to replace it [after a few years],” says Stachowiak. Eco Creations’ designer stone panels are 100 percent non-porous and come with a 25-year warranty. The 5 mm stone is laminated to an aluminum polymer backing making it 10 times stronger and 1/3 to 1/6 the weight of traditional stone products of similar size, allowing for easy installation and reducing transportation costs, giving the stone a smaller carbon footprint. The stone panels can be used as flooring, feature walls, shower walls and fireplace surrounds. Each type of stone has its own unique characteristics that compliment every décor style: ADD CHARACTER WITH TRAVERTINE Travertine is a type of limestone often found at the mouth of a hot spring or limestone cave and is formed by the process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate. This stone has a lot of character as a result of the small perforations that occurred
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RENO during its formation making it a popular
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choice for feature walls, fireplace surrounds and shower walls. GET A LUXURIOUS, MODERN FINISH WITH MARBLE Marble is characterized by coloured veins that create interesting patterns in the stone. These designs are caused by minerals that, when heated during the rock’s transformation into marble, melt down to form the attractive vein patterns. Marble’s shiny, smooth and cool surface make it a popular choice for backsplashes and showers.
A translucent stone, onyx has more sheen than marble and adds a unique design element to kitchen backsplashes, fireplace surrounds, feature walls and bar tables. Eco Creations has partnered with Regal Lighting Design to provide LED panels used to backlight the translucent stone, creating the look of a glowing rock. “With the LED panel, you get an even
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EACH TYPE OF STONE HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS THAT COMPLIMENT EVERY DÉCOR STYLE
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LIGHT UP YOUR STONE WALL
light so the whole sheet is illuminated,” says Stachowiak. Backlit onyx can be used as a kitchen backsplash, eliminating the need for under-cabinet lighting or can stand alone as a piece of artwork on a feature wall. WALLPAPER WITH STONE You may think adding stone to the walls of your home is an enormous task involving hours of labour to move heavy rock into the home, but a new product called eco stone makes adding the character of natural stone anywhere inside or outside the home as easily as putting up wallpaper. Developed in Germany, and sold in Canada exclusively by Eco Creations, layers of compressed slate are bonded to a polyester and fibreglass backing creating a strong, yet flexible, piece of stone 1.5 mm thick. Weighting approximately 0.5 lbs. per square inch, eco stone allows for easy do-it-yourself installation that can be applied directly to concrete, ceramic, cabinetry and many other surfaces. HOSS | THE HOME RENOVATION RESOURCE
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